Dating service does background checks

Name: Katie Lamphere

Title: Owner/center director

Company: Letting It Go Dating

Address: 2461 10th St., Coralville

Phone: (319) 338-5929

Website: www.LettingItGoDating.com

Elevator pitch: “We turn your table for one into a table for two.”

By Katie Mills Giorgio, corrrespondent

Katie Lamphere knows dating can be tough.

“It's a simple thing, but we make it complex and much harder than it needs to be,” she said.

So Lamphere goes to work every day with the mission of trying to make modern dating simple.

The Letting It Go Dating concept is itself simple: The company makes the introductions between members, arranges first dates (for which Letting It Go pays), then follows up with each person after the date to see how things went.

“It is simple, but you need someone to keep it that way,” Lamphere said. “I tell people I don't have a magic wand and I'm not the fairy godmother.

“I just know most people would love to know what the other person is thinking.”

She started Letting It Go a year and a half ago after moving to Iowa. She lived in Florida and South Carolina before that, working for dating services and online dating companies.

“I was extremely frustrated working for those companies because it wasn't personalized,” Lamphere recalled. “I hated the way they went about it. It was uncaring and about selling memberships.”

While Internet dating has become hugely popular, Lamphere says her company doesn't follow the click-a-pic approach.

“At Letting It Go, there are no profiles to fill out,” she noted. “We sit down and talk with you to find out where you've been, where you are now and where you see yourself in terms of dating.

“We want to know what brought you to us.”

Lamphere said they spend a minimum of an hour with each new member to gather enough information to match them with other members.

“People are nervous to meet with us, but we sit down over water or coffee and just chit chat,” she said.

“What you don't get from Internet dating is honesty. Profiles can be misleading,” Lamphere continued.

So Letting it Go conducts background checks to verify member information.

While Matchmaking Mondays, as they are called, are particularly fun as Lamphere emails members with introductions, she admits she spends most of her day thinking about business.

“I spend 23 out of 24 hours a day focused on employees and members,” she said. “I just don't want to fail someone.”

Letting It Go also hosts social events, such as mixers and speed dating events.

The Letting It Go office - five full time and two part time staff - is in Coralville, but plans are under way to expand to other Iowa locations. She also hopes to be able to offer wedding planning services.

Lamphere says her ideal date is one that makes you look forward to a second date.

“It doesn't matter if you're on a park bench, in a coffee shop or out to dinner. I want to leave saying ‘Man, I can't wait for the next date.'”